The main category of the land fund in Russia is agricultural land, which is currently being used in the conditions of manifestation of a wide range of negative natural processes, such as erosion, deflation, drought, salinization, etc. accompanied by a constantly growing agricultural load. The authors present a retrospective analysis of works of scientists in the field of soil erosion, as well as scientific developments on the system of anti-erosion measures in the Central Chernozem Region. It is shown that the main causes of soil erosion in modern conditions are the showery nature of precipitation, snowmelt runoff, low forest cover, lack of natural vegetation, plough-disturbance of a high percentage of tilled areas, deterioration of infiltration and water absorption capacity of land masses and, as a result, a decrease in erosion resistance of the territory. The analysis of manifestation of erosion processes indicates the relationship between the distribution of washed-off soils and an increase in slope steepness, while the presented scale of soil loss intensity allows observing the intensification of this process. The authors have emphasized the dependence of degree of humus content decrease on the category of soil erosion. The most erosion-hazardous elements of the slope are microravines, along the talwegs of which linear scours are formed, and intensive washout of soil from the rill talwegs occurs. Under the impact of a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, the territorial basis of agricultural production is being destroyed. Currently, the trend of deterioration of arable land continues. Soil erosion weakens the natural potential of land and thus causes great socio-economic damage to agriculture. Taking into account the fact that soil is the main resource component of nature for agriculture, it is concluded that the approach to studying erosion processes should be comprehensive. Any land use should be preceded by an analysis based on the assessment of potential erosion hazard.